Fred Cray (born 1957) is an American multimedia artist based in
Brooklyn,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
whose first solo show, in 2000, of his photographs were described by ''
The New York Times'' as "lush, gaudy and ethereal
Technicolor spirit photographs", and whose works are now contained in the collections of many major art institutions, including the
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
, the
Center for Photography at Woodstock
The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is a not-for-profit artist-centered organization to develop and promote contemporary photography, located in Woodstock, New York. It began operations in 1977 under the name ''Catskill Center for Photogr ...
,
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
, and the
George Eastman Museum.
Life, art, accomplishments
Cray was born in
Evanston, Illinois and is a graduate of
The Hotchkiss School in
Lakeville, Connecticut. He earned a
B.A. degree
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate education, undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally complet ...
from
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...
in 1979, attended the
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and did graduate studies in painting at the
Yale School of Art.
In 2003 he was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
and shortly thereafter received a
Pollock–Krasner award. In 2008 he was awarded a Peter S. Reed Foundation grant.
Cray's "two-minute portraits" are large-scale self-portraits, inquiring into the persistence of the photographic image. His series of unique collage prints, "travel diaries", are narrative/impressionist tours of the world and his mind.
Since starting his ongoing Unique Photographs project in 2008, he has scattered more than 26,000 one-of-a-kind photographs across various locations worldwide, often placed discreetly yet sometimes in plain sight for people to discover. Many of these placements are documented on the Instagram feed associated with the project. Several books have been published in connection with the Unique Photographs project, such as Unique Photographs, Changing The Guard, Conversations, and Cray Cray. Furthermore, additional unique photographs are created specifically for these book projects and exhibitions.
Since 2008, Cray has left or hidden over 26,000 unique photographs in New York, the United States and different parts of the world including Europe, Asia, Australia and South Africa. review Fred Cray-Unique Photographs/Photobookstore Magazine 1 November 2013
Cray is represented by Janet Borden Inc.
Publications
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References
External links
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Fred on Revel in New YorkInstagramJanet Borden Inc
1957 births
American photographers
Hotchkiss School alumni
Middlebury College alumni
Yale School of Art alumni
Living people
{{US-photographer-stub